I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! star Martin Kemp found himself supporting wife Shirlie following a ‘traumatic’ tour when she was a backing singer for pop band Wham!
Martin Kemp supported wife Shirlie after a ‘traumtic’ trip away with Wham! (Image: Getty Images)
Martin Kemp’s wife Shirlie has opened up about a “traumatic” trip to China that left her needing therapy and a holiday in Florida. The singer, who performed as a backing vocalist for Wham! in Beijing and Guangzhou in 1985, described the visit as “the most shocking experience”.
The performances were a landmark moment for China, marking the first time a Western pop band had played in the country. However, Shirlie was deeply affected by the sight of the Great Wall of China, known as “the longest cemetery on Earth” due to the hundreds of thousands of lives lost during its construction.
Speaking on Travel Secrets The Podcast, Shirlie said: “Everything just upset me in a way, I thought, ‘Who built this wall?’ The amount of lives that have been lost building…it was a culture that I was really saddened by.”
Martin explained he soon found the costs of the trip “mounting up” as he found himself paying for his wife to have therapy. He added: “When Shirlie came back from China, it cost me a fortune in therapy. It’s the truth.”
Shirlie went on to say that “something else that was quite traumatic” happened on the trip, leading her to plead for another trip away. She said: “I was like, ‘Martin, take me to Florida, I need to go somewhere brand spanking new’.”
Shirlie, back right, toured to China with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s Wham!(Image: Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Martin quipped: “It wasn’t just the therapy, it was the trip to Florida as well. It was all mounting up.”
The duo headed to America for a tennis camp following Shirlie’s return home. She explains it allowed her to “readjust” to normal life after the 10-day journey with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
The historic visit was captured in Wham! in China: Foreign Skies, where George revealed the Chinese Minister for Culture issued a warning urging fans not to imitate his more provocative dance routines.
He said: “He basically advised the youth that were there to go to the concert and watch it but not learn from it, which seems a pretty ridiculous thing to say.”
Wham! were the first Western pop band to perform in China(Image: 1985 Getty Images)
The group’s visit was also overshadowed by a disturbing incident involving one of their backing musicians during a flight. On the journey to their second performance, Portuguese trumpeter Raul D’Oliveira allegedly experienced a psychotic episode, with onlookers claiming he stabbed himself in the abdomen with a knife whilst Helen “Pepsi” DeMacque and Shirlie stood screaming close by.
Authorities reported he then forced his way into the cockpit, before being restrained by the pilot who executed an emergency nosedive. Speaking to the Independent, backing vocalist Janet Mooney said: “It was very traumatic for all of us, mostly because we had to land a couple of times in bad weather and that was not great, and of course something not very nice was happening to a friend of ours.”
Shirlie reveals she hasn’t been back to China since Wham! ‘s groundbreaking tour. Martin is currently in Australia taking part in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
The popular programme is back on ITV One at 9.05pm tonight (22 November). A slew of celebrities, including comedian Ruby Wax, Jack Osbourne, model Kelly Brook, and social media sensation Angry Ginge, are all competing for the coveted title of king or queen of the jungle.
